Rare Opportunity to See Paintings Outside Amsterdam...

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is proud to announce an unprecedented and extraordinary exhibition of 70 of the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890). The exhibition will open on January 17, 1999 and continue through April 4.

Van Gogh's Van Goghs: Masterpieces from the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, will be based entirely on the holdings of the Van Gogh Museum whose renovation and expansion provides this rare opportunity to view these remarkable paintings outside of the Netherlands.

The exhibition will illustrate Van Gogh's entire career, from the Potato Eaters of 1885 through Wheatfield with Crows of 1890, the year of his death. It will include such famous works as the Self Portrait as an Artist (1888), The Zouave (1888), The Bedroom (1888) and The Harvest (1888).

This exhibition is being organized by the National Gallery of Art and the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam in collaboration with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. It is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., will exhibit the works from October 4, 1998 through January 3, 1999, the only other U.S. site.

"LACMA is pleased to be uniquely suited to bring an exhibition of this scale and importance to Southern California and the Western United States," said Andrea Rich, the museum's president and chief executive officer. "This extraordinary event will be only the first of several such exhibitions that LACMA will be offering to the people of Los Angeles and our region in the next few years."

"Bringing the world's greatest art to our community is a major part of LACMA's mission," said Graham W.J. Beal, the museum's director. "The Van Gogh exhibition permits us to underline that commitment and reestablish our long tradition of providing unparalleled artistic experiences in Los Angeles."

"As we begin the last year of the century, Angelenos and tourists from the world over will have the unique opportunity to view Van Gogh's masterpieces," said Los Angeles Mayor Richard J. Riordan. "This is another example of how culture lives and thrives in the City of Angels."

Van Gogh's career can be characterized by the various locales where he worked. From the somber atmosphere of his first paintings executed in Holland to the light-drenched renditions of the countryside in Provence and the visionary paintings executed shortly before his death at Auvers near Paris, Van Gogh's paintings are the landmarks of a remarkable emotional, aesthetic and spiritual journey.

Born into a religious family in 1853, Van Gogh first considered becoming a pastor, but his own feelings of unworthiness led him to abandon that ambition. Still, a biblical compassion imbues the first works of the artist executed in Nuenen. The exhibition will include the famous Potato Eaters (1885) of this period.

His spiritual quest is paralleled by Van Gogh's admiration for the earnestness of the French artist J. F. Millet's renditions of peasant life. Van Gogh maintained this admiration throughout his life, even when his own compositions strayed from Millet's iconography. A number of Van Gogh's remarkable paintings of peasant life will be included in the exhibition.

Moving to Paris in 1886, Van Gogh discovered the brilliant art world of the city. His work reflected his admiration for Impressionism; his palette lightened and he adopted, albeit briefly, the brushstrokes typical of Impressionist works. Unable to afford models, Van Gogh often painted his own portrait. A brilliant series of self-portraits will illustrate Van Gogh's work as chief chronicler of his own features. Views of Paris, among the freshest and happiest of his paintings, will illustrate the exhilaration he felt for his new environment. Still lifes of flowers and of books will complete the group of paintings done by Van Gogh in Paris.

Like many other 19th century artists, Van Gogh soon grew impatient and exhausted with the life of Paris and sought a more peaceful environment. He found it, by chance, in Arles in the south of France in 1888. There, he befriended simple people as he had done at Nuenen. The exhibition will present several portraits of the postman Roulin's family as well as the famous The Zouave (1888) and the iconic image of his Bedroom (1888), a symbol of simplicity and peacefulness.

Van Gogh's invitation to his friend Gauguin to visit him in Arles and the collapse of their friendship contributed to Van Gogh's mental decay. A large selection of the paintings executed at Saint Remy while he was healing from his mental distress will be included in the exhibition. They reflect in particular the complexity of Van Gogh's aesthetic response to his mental condition and lead directly to the great masterpieces of the final years of his life at Auvers, such as Wheatfield with Crows (1890), which is included in the exhibition.

Credit Line: The exhibition was organized by the National Gallery of Art and the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, in collaboration with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. This exhibition was supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

Tickets will go on sale Sunday, November 15, for Van Gogh’s Van Goghs: Masterpieces from the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, which is on view at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art – LACMA – from January 17, 1999 through April 4. Tickets will be available at the LACMA box office after January 10. Tickets for this exhibition are time and date stamped, and ticket holders will only be allowed into the exhibition at the time indicated on the ticket. For membership information, call (323) 857-6151.